The Ministry of Defence has said a satellite phone encryption crack by
researchers will not affect UK military use of satellite phones.

The crack of the A5-GMR-1 and A5-GMR-2 encryption algorithms will not
affect military operations, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told ZDNet UK
on Wednesday.

"All military users of mobile satellite communication systems are aware
of the potential threats to such systems and are briefed explicitly that
they are only authorised to pass unclassified information (both voice
and data) over these systems," an MoD spokeswoman said in an email
statement. "Protected information is never sent over an unclassified
system, unless it is being employed in conjunction with an accredited
secure device."

MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) declined to comment on use
of satellite phones by the intelligence services. "We don't comment on
operational security cases," a spokeswoman for the intelligence services
told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.